Amphibromus from the Greek 'amphi' meaning double and 'bromus' a grass genus, referring to the spikelets resembling those of the genus Bromus. Pithogastrus from the Greek 'pithos' meaning a large earthenware pot and 'gaster' meaning belly, referring to the swollen lemmas at maturity.

Distribution:

Restricted to a few sites in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia, growing in seasonal swampy area. Also found in New South Wales and Victoria.

Status:

Native. Endangered in South Australia. Extremely rare in the other states. The SA Seed Conservation Centre collected and banked more than 1,500 seeds for this endangered grass in 2016 with the support of Natural Resources Adelaide & Mount Lofty Ranges. Further collections of this endangered grass will be attempted in 2017 from the two other known historic locations in the Mt Crawford region.

Use hands to gently strip seeds off the mature seed spike that are turning straw colour. Mature seeds will come off easily. Alternatively, you can break off the whole seed spike.

Seed cleaning:

Place the seeds/spike in a tray and leave to dry for two weeks. No further cleaning is required if only seed collected. If seed spikes collected, use hand to strip off the mature seeds. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place.

Seed viability:

From three collections, the seed viability was average to high, ranging from 70% to 100%.

Seeds stored:

Location

No. of seeds(weight grams)

Numberof plants

Datecollected

Collection numberCollection location

Datestored

% Viability

Storagetemperature

BGA

920 (2.41 g)

30

22-Dec-2008

DJD1410Southern Lofty

20-Jul-2009

90%

-18°C

BGA

80

15

13-Dec-2009

KHB 347Southern Lofty

Jun-2010

100%

-18°C

BGA

660 (0.82 g)

15

4-Jan-2011

KHB347Southern Lofty

1-Jan-2012

70%

-18°C

Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.